March 2009 Briefing - Psychiatry

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Psychiatry for March 2009. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Safe Practice Scores Do Not Add Up to Fewer Patient Deaths

TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- In hospitals, higher self-reported scores for improvements in safe practices do not correlate with reduced mortality rates, researchers report in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Health care use and costs for chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems are substantially reduced when they are provided housing without the precondition of abstinence from alcohol, according to a study published in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking remains a serious health risk for children, who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home and then influenced to take it up themselves by its depiction in popular movies, according to two studies published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.

MONDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- People with a family history of depression are more likely to develop the illness if they have loss of brain cortex matter, according to research published online March 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

MONDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Mice housed in isolation are more likely to experience major ischemic damage and die of a stroke than their socially housed cohorts, according to research published online March 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

FRIDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Contrary to what has been widely believed, long-term relationships don't necessarily kill romantic love, and many couples can maintain an exciting relationship that is positively associated with marital satisfaction, mental health and overall well-being, according to the results of a study published in the March issue of the Review of General Psychology.

THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- Family mealtimes in adolescence are associated with healthful eating habits later in life, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Citing cost barriers, relatively few U.S. hospitals have adopted electronic health records, posing a major obstacle for policy makers who say health information technology is critical to the improvement of health care quality and cost-effectiveness, according to an article published online March 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Although Americans fear chronic disease above debt, divorce or unemployment, their lifestyle choices put them at risk for diseases such as diabetes, according to a report released March 24 by the American Diabetes Association.

TUESDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients who experience chronic pain, those who receive a collaborative approach to pain treatment have improvements in pain and depression severity compared with usual care, researchers report in the March 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Multiple early exposures to anesthesia may be an important risk factor for developing learning disabilities later in childhood, researchers report in the April issue of Anesthesiology.

MONDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- The emotional content of Western music appears to be universally recognized even by isolated African tribesman, and is not the result of acculturation, according to research reported March 19 in Current Biology.

MONDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- As well as social isolation, feelings of loneliness and lack of social support are associated with a poorer self-perception of health among the elderly, according to a report published in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

MONDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- Lung cancer patients who continue to smoke even after their diagnosis are more likely to experience moderate to severe pain, researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of Pain.

THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Depression is associated with a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, which does not appear to be due to inflammation despite previous studies suggesting a link between inflammation and coronary heart disease, according to the results of a study published in the March 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Watchful waiting as opposed to ordering blood tests for patients with unexplained complaints was not associated with increased patient anxiety or decreased satisfaction, according to research published in the March/April Annals of Family Medicine.

THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Infants who die after abusive head injuries often have neck injuries, although these injuries appear to be only a contributing factor to most brain lesions associated with abusive head trauma, researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

TUESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Modafinil, a drug used to treat narcolepsy and psychiatric disorders, increases dopamine in the brain and may have the potential for abuse and addiction, according to a report published in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

MONDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- A structured system of providing information to cancer patients showed some signs of reducing their psychological distress, according to research published online March 9 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

FRIDAY, Mar. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Women who test positive for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation and are at high risk for breast cancer are more receptive to prophylactic mastectomy to reduce risk than women who test negative, according to research published in the Apr. 15 issue of Cancer.

FRIDAY, Mar. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Many male carriers of BRCA1/2 mutations do not seek genetic counseling, even though the mutations predispose them to breast and other cancers, according to a review in the February issue of the Journal of Genetic Counseling.

FRIDAY, Mar. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Bereaved parents are more likely to consent to a request for post-mortem imaging for research purposes if they are approached by a specially trained nurse with experience in family and bereavement counseling, according to a study published online Mar. 12 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

THURSDAY, Mar. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Well-known brain networks appear to play a role in certain aspects of religious belief, according to research published online Mar. 9 before print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

THURSDAY, Mar. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Children of older fathers are more likely to have subtle neurocognitive problems, while children of older women are more likely to have superior neurocognitive abilities, researchers report in the March issue of PLoS Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Anger, hostility and depression are associated with a higher risk of coronary heart disease in healthy individuals, according to two studies published in the Mar. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

TUESDAY, Mar. 10 (HealthDay News) -- A substantial portion of medical specialists' office-based activity is devoted to routine and preventive care for known patients, for services that might often be handled by primary care physicians, according to research published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

TUESDAY, Mar. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly patients with age-related macular degeneration are more likely than their counterparts without the eye disease to experience a wide range of illnesses, including depression, hip fracture and blindness, according to a report published in the March issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

TUESDAY, Mar. 10 (HealthDay News) -- End-of-life health care may be associated with feelings of abandonment, and its associated costs are lower after physician-patient communication but higher among minorities, according to a series of studies published in the Mar. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

MONDAY, Mar. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Undergraduate dietetics students have a moderate degree of fat phobia and display bias in their approach to treating obese patients, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

FRIDAY, Mar. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Depression symptoms occurring in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are associated with all-cause mortality, according to a report published in the March issue of Chest.

FRIDAY, Mar. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the risk of burns as a result of wearing medicated patches, such as those used for smoking cessation or pain relief, during MRI scans.

THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Anxiety over the disease is a major predictor in older men's decision to begin androgen deprivation therapy early after biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer, according to research published online Mar. 2 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Non-drinking adolescents who own alcohol-branded merchandise such as hats and T-shirts may be more likely to start drinking, according to a report published in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The prevalence of mental health and substance abuse disorders is markedly higher among single mothers nearing the end of welfare eligibility compared with the general U.S. female population, according to the results of a study published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Achieving health care reform is one of President Barack Obama's major challenges, and his newly released spending plan calls on Congress to commit $630 billion over the next decade to finance that reform, according to an article published online Mar. 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Children of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder are at greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders, especially early-onset bipolar disorder, according to research published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event in childhood can independently predict attempted suicide risk, although trauma alone cannot, according to research presented in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Continuous arterial spin-labeling (CASL) MRI is a non-invasive technique that can reveal changes in cerebral blood flow within specific brain regions, which may help to identify progression to Alzheimer's disease, according to research published in the March issue of Radiology.

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Alcohol abuse/dependence leads to increased risk of major depression instead of vice versa, answering a much debated question regarding the link between these two events, according to research published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Impulsive kindergartners may be more likely to become regular gamblers by sixth grade, according to research published in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Alterations of the MET gene, encoding an enzyme involved in brain development and gastrointestinal repair, may be associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder with associated gastrointestinal dysfunction, according to research published in the March issue of Pediatrics.

MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Although the mortality rate related to motor vehicles remained almost unchanged from 1999 to 2005 in the United States, on closer inspection the data reveals wide variations from state to state, as well as by gender and ethnicity, according to a report published in the Feb. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- People who have negative views about aging are more likely to have a cardiovascular event later in life, according to research published online Feb. 13 in Psychological Science.

MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Concerns over the state of the economy and personal finances are keeping one-third of Americans from having a good night's sleep, according to a report published by the National Sleep Foundation.